is inclined to do so.’ ‘It must appear curious, however, that custom has made it indecent for her to return, without an invitation from her husband! This may produce considerable effect, when a mutual regard, or children, attach them to each other; but, while the lady continues young, if she be any way coquetish and takes a pleasure, as is sometimes the case, to teaze her husband, she will, under various pretexts, continue obdurate for months, until his patience, and his ample stock of promises of future kindness, are expended. In short, the Hindostanee ladies are possessed of a thousand arts whereby to secure their influence, and to domineer over the _lords of creation_. ‘In the absence of her husband, a wife, though she may receive, pays no visits. When the women travel, or move from one house to another, they are concealed with all the precaution generally attributed to an Eastern journey; their palanquins are carefully shut up, and attended, when the rank of the person demands it, by guards composed of eunuchs, and sometimes by armed women, who are called, from their countries, Toorknees, Zillmaknees, Oorda-Bignees, &c. This jealous care, however, is not taken by all classes. The Rohillas, for instance, are less scrupulous: among themselves, their women travel unveiled, and without ceremony. Indeed, among the northern nations, we can trace but little of that guarded precaution so conspicuous in the cities of Hindostan. ‘No ceremony is observed at the naming of a child. The parents choose a name, which habit soon confirms. The great are credulous, and often call in an astrologer, who is mostly a Bramin, to cast the child’s nativity, and to fix on, or to approve of, a name; but this is not usual, nor is feasting, nor merry-making, as at our christenings. ‘A son is at no age debarred from freely entering the _zenanah_, though it may contain numbers of women not at all related to him; and, should the encreased bulk of any of the slave-girls shew symptoms of his attention, it will hardly be deemed a crime in either party. However, as the parents are solicitous to prevent such an intercourse, they rarely fail to provide the young gentleman with a wife, so early as circumstances will admit. Should this be delayed, a slave-girl would be allowed him, but the intercourse must proceed in such a manner, as if the parents were ignorant of the affair; the progeny from this connection would be received into the family on equal terms with those born in wedlock; being once acknowledged, they are entitled to every privilege of inheritance. Primogeniture, among the Mahomedans, gives no superior claims to their real, or personal property: the division of the estate is easy, for a son gets double the share of a daughter.